Because of environmental considerations, it is necessary to remove from waste materials traces of many chemicals. This can be done in some instances by physically removing the hazardous materials from the waste. This procedure makes it necessary to dispose of the toxic materials removed. The second, and preferred method, is by rendering such materials inactive by conversion of the materials to an acceptable, harmless form or composition.
The use of sodium hypochlorite to destroy iron pentacarbonyl is known where the iron pentacarbonyl is soluble in the media being used. U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,886 issued May 16, 1978 to Anthony J. Branecky discloses removing traces of iron pentacarbonyl from a methanol mixture with aqueous sodium hypochlorite. In a methanol mixture, the reaction is essentially one phase because of the solubility of small quantities of iron pentacarbonyl in such a mixture. It also has been suggested to use a solvent in such a process but such solvents create further problems because of the removal or disposal of the solvent. The use of ion exchange resins to remove iron pentacarbonyl is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,180 issued Mar. 12, 1968 to John Arnold Glass and Wilbert H. Urry and U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,841 issued Mar. 18, 1969 to John S. Dehn and John A. Glass.